From Dutch/German 'Schuyler' meaning 'scholar' or 'shelter'; brought to America by Dutch settlers.
Schuyler — pronounced SKY-ler — is a Dutch-derived name meaning "scholar" or "student," from the Dutch schuler. It arrived in North America with the early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, and the Schuyler family became one of the most powerful dynasties in colonial New York. Philip Schuyler, a general in the Continental Army and later a United States Senator, was so prominent that Alexander Hamilton married into the family — a connection that found new audiences when Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton gave Schuyler a contemporary renaissance, introducing the Schuyler sisters to a generation who had never encountered the name in a history book.
For most of American history, Schuyler was a patrician surname, redolent of old Dutch landholdings along the Hudson River. Its emergence as a given name was gradual, propelled by the American habit of honoring prominent families by adopting their names. The spelling is immediately distinctive — that opening SCH is unmistakably Dutch — and it lends the name an air of historical specificity that the homophonic Skylar and Skyler, which arose independently, do not share.
In the twenty-first century, Schuyler has become genuinely gender-neutral, given to children of any gender with equal affection. It appeals to parents who want something that sounds familiar but reads as uncommon — a name with a story attached. Its sky-ward sound gives it an open, aspirational feeling.